by AJ
Spreading my wings outside Squidoo
February 18, 2010 in AJ's musings, Featured by AJ
AJ is musing about thinking “outside the lens”. My post is late this week because I accepted an offer I just could not refuse but it got me thinking…..
Yep, I do a lot of thinking, alone here in my ivory tower, across the water from a lot of my on-line friends, in a very lovely part of England. And this week my brain is buzzing. Eighteen months on Squidoo and still learning all the time about this online stuff and still hoping to turn my writing into an income. Which I am doing, oh ever so slowly but the way forward is becoming more clear!
The offer I could not refuse came from one of my online buddies, Drifter, but it is not the offer I am going to talk about as I do that on my blog Always Juggling. And Alex and I will be discussing what we are doing live on Giant Squid Open Mike on 02 March, 5pm EST, in a program called “Blogging for Profit”.
What I AM going to do on here is get you thinking about something that I have been pondering these past few weeks.
All over Squidooland there’s blogs, forums, Nings and networks that provide help for Squidoo Lensmasters. People share information, they post links to their lenses and it seems to me that supporting each other is frequently focussed on increasing lensrank. The networks start out as sharing and teaching communities but how many people join them because of what the network might do for them, rather than what they can contribute to helping their fellow members?
If I asked you what ONE thing would help you in your online endeavours, what would your immediate answer be?
- Would it be increased traffic to your lenses?
- More Blessings from Squidoo Angels?
- Would it be to always have someone instantly available to answer your questions about Lenscrafting?
- Anything else to do with Squidoo?
But are we in danger of focussing too much on Lensrank? What about all the other pieces of the Internet Marketing puzzle that our lenses are only a small part of?
Currently I am seeing many threads on the SquidU Forum devoted to Lens promotion to the extent that folks are in danger of obsessing over Lensrank and are perhaps missing a crucial point. Which is that 2,000 lenses fighting for the Tier 1 payouts on a site that has over 1,000,000 lenses means that the amount of work it can take to keep a lens in the Top Tier can be hugely disproportionate to the financial benefits.
Getting back to my original question……
Do you believe that the best help you can get is something that focuses on helping you with Lensrank? Perhaps you should be thinking more “outside the box” – or in this case “outside the lens”?
So I guess the point of this post is to try to get you thinking outside the Comfort Zone of Squidoo. Don’t focus exclusively on your lenses. Think about how they should be just a small part of your online activities.
Is it time to spread your wings? I am spreading mine
In the last three weeks I have set up two websites (hosted by Squidster’s SEO Praxis) and a micro-niche blog plus I have finally published my first hub on Hubpages! More micro-niche blogs will follow. I will still be publishing lenses on Squidoo but they are just a small part of my planned Internet Mix.
I am not flying yet, but I am flexing those flight muscles. I’ll keep you posted!
Quoting allthatiscute: Diary of a rabbit owner. Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent, because frankly I don’t care. —
Overheard on twitter...
Glad to see you spreading your wings…
I’ve never been one to worry much about lensrank…and it probably shows…most of my lenses don’t ever make it to the highest tier…but that has never really bothered me because lensrank is not why I make them lol…
I think I was lucky that I had already been working online for quite a few years before even discovering Squidoo…though Squidoo did suck me in & caused me to neglect some of my other projects…it has also taught me a lot of invaluable information. I’ve also been spreading my wings more lately…& have finally started the whole “building a tribe” thing…though I have to admit that I’ve actually never read any of the Seth books…I subscribe to his blog & tend to disagree with what he has to say as often as not…so I figured his books would just be too much about marketing for my taste.
I’m an Artist & writer…I’m no good at the marketing thing, never have been…I probably need an Agent or something to handle that aspect lol…For me Squidoo has been a good compliment to my other work & a great way to express myself…but I agree it is just a piece of the overall puzzle, and we all need to step back from Squidoo & find ways to combine it with our other projects…
Although I haven’t read Seth’s books…I think the whole “tribe” concept is essential to online success…
mysticmama´s last blog ..Spreading my wings outside Squidoo
snip>I’m an Artist & writer…I’m no good at the marketing thing, never have been…I probably need an Agent or something to handle that aspect
lol -your words, mysticmama, could be mine if i substitute Artist for Teacher.
like so many people, I took to squidoo like a duck to water and, yes, although I am not selling anything through my lenses, I would like to increase traffic all the same.
Unfortunately, i am seriously time-poor and not clued-into the latest ‘net promo opps. Like you, I have neither an agent nor a working elf nor a magic wand and … my Muse is serioulsly not at all interested in that sort of preoccupation
C.C. Saint-clair´s last blog ..Facebook Renewed
I never obsessed over lensrank – even though I had 30 lenses in top tier this winter, and even now have about 15 there. The key to online success is traffic and sales. And if you get that, lensrank fill follow. I even have a debate going on about that here :
Yes, shameless plug: http://www.squidoo.com/squidangel-link (and that’s my new account for squidoo help lenses btw).
As I told you privately: you and your lenses will profit from you spreading your wings.
And yes, Mysticmama is right of course: having a tribe is crucial too. Which is one reason to stick to a niche: that’s where the tribes are. I have 200+ readers on All Considering & 200+ subscribers to my newsletter. Couldn’t have gotten there without focus on niche.
Katinka Hesselink´s last blog ..Spreading my wings outside Squidoo
I agree with what Katinka says above. There is way too much obsessing about lensrank. I would much rather obsess about INCOME. That is what pays my bills, and frankly my time is worth something. The learning experience I have gotten from Squidoo has been invaluable because it makes the learning curve on any other site way, way faster, but in the end it is about the money. What I do has to bring in real income for me to deem it it to be continually worthwhile.
My goal is to have all of my online income pay for my offline gallery. I would like to not have to worry about where the next month’s rent is going to come from because that is taken care of and all I need to do is get out there and create and sell what I have created. And I think that for most of us, getting online is due to a need of some sort, often monetary.
And that need is NOT shameful, as believe it or not, every person on this earth needs to earn an income to pay for their expenses in one way or another.
The fact that I can explore that need and the results with a great community that I have met online is one of the best benefits that I have gotten from my association on Squidoo. But lensrank is not the answer because I do not have the time to babysit any of my articles to make sure that I get my $15 per month from that one lens.
And to that topic, I also like knowing that my income is not based on just what Squidoo has to pay me, because what if, and just in case can happen, and having income from several sources eases my little heart.
lakeerieartists´s last blog ..Spreading my wings outside Squidoo
When I first started on Squidoo, I was so thrilled to be able to share my writing, interesting topics, and to do it in easy-to-create web page. Lensrank and even income was not my primary focus. I found a creative outlet and lots of wonderful friends.
It’s in the last few months that I’ve been concentrating on the business side of my Squidoo lenses, which means learning how to make them better (not obsessing over lensrank) and branching out into other sites.
“Tribes” catch my attention too, and the Facebook Fan Pages fitting in with the same mindset (at least, that’s the plan).
It reminds me of the saying of not having all your eggs in one basket. Right now, I’m narrowing in on a few groups and sites to help me learn and succeed in online business.
For sure, I am busily learning about niches and blogging and even created a few hub pages. Learning and growing – I think the more we learn on line, the better off we are!